Foreclosed hotel sold at half value
July 3, 2026 by Tom Daykin
A downtown Milwaukee hotel that was foreclosed three years ago has been sold for just less than half of its assessed value.
The four-story, 132-room Cambria Hotel, 503-521 N. Plankinton Ave., was sold for $7.1 million to First MKO Owner LLC – an affiliate of Chicago-based First Hospitality.
That’s according to a deed posted online by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue on June 29.
First Hospitality, which operates more than 70 hotels nationwide, didn’t immediately respond to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s request for comment. The firm’s properties include the Abbey Resort, near Lake Geneva, according to its website.
The Cambria was sold by an affiliate of Atlanta-based Access Point Financial LLC.
Access Point Financial in 2023 took control of the hotel after obtaining a $17.5 million foreclosure judgment against an affiliate of Chicago-based Murphy Development Group LLC.
Murphy Development opened the Cambria in October 2019, just five months before the COVID-19 pandemic largely shut down the hotel industry.
The hotel’s assessed value is $15.1 million, according to city records. It’s the only Cambria in the Milwaukee area.
The Cambria’s sale comes as executives from Marcus Corp. and other downtown hotel owners say it’s premature to consider a possible new convention center hotel tied to Baird Center.
The board of the Wisconsin Center District, a state-created agency that owns Baird Center, at its May 15 meeting discussed a board committee’s recommendation that the district explore hotel expansion as a long-term strategic objective.
That committee recommended revisiting the topic as hotel market conditions and other economic factors evolve.
But board members didn’t act on that recommendation. And, on June 8, the board voted to fire district CEO and President Marty Brooks, who hired a consulting firm which recommended a 650-room hotel.
That consultant’s report said Baird Center loses business to other cities because the newly expanded facility isn’t connected to enough hotel rooms.
A new hotel would hurt downtown’s existing hotels struggling to compete in a weak market, according to Marcus.
The sale comes as execs from Marcus Corp. and other downtown hotel owners say it’s premature to consider a possible new convention center hotel tied to Baird Center.
Source: Pressreader.com
